Monday, January 25, 2010

A Good Week

Hey Mom,

This week was a little slower for Elder Stephens and I. We had interviews on Wednesday and then Zone Conference on Thursday, and those are always great. It's not as exciting when you're just sitting in your apartment looking at a polycom for 8 hours, but it's still a good boost for the whole transfer. Elder Stephens and I are pretty excited because there will be a professional instructor from the Church coming to our mission next transfer to help train us better in zone conference. It will be awesome to get the training, but we are really excited because President Dance told us that we get to travel to Juneau for it. The last time they went from Whitehorse to Juneau for a zone conference, they drove to Skagway, flew in a bush plane to Haines I think, and then took a Ferry to Juneau. I think that would be an awesome way to travel, so hopefully they let us go the same way this time. We'll see in February.

On PDay I got to go play the drums at a member's house. It was pretty awesome. It was fun to play after not playing for so long, but I was really rusty. The rest of the week went OK. We were able to do more teaching this week, and we had some realy cool experiences with our investigators. On Wednesday we had a lesson with Karen and Cecil, and we taught them about the Restoration. The lesson didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped it would. I felt like I was stumbling over my words the whole time. When we finished we said a closing prayer, and Karen started talking about how she felt about everything. She put her hand on the Book of Mormon, and then tears came to her eyes and she said that ever since she had started coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon, she has felt so much joy. I was touched by that, and realized that that is the entire reason I'm out here, to be an instrument in the Lord's hands so that other people can have joy. In return, I will feel joy as well. The gospel is an amazing thing, and it changes lives.

We started teaching Nicole's little brother this week. He's a good kid, and he has lots of support. Nicole's family is awesome, and it's amazing how much support their parents give them even though they aren't members of the church. They took us out to lunch on Saturday, and Nicole's mom was really supportive of us too in having us teach Christopher. She has also been coming to church ever since Nicole's confirmation, and she is an awesome person. The work has been slow here this week, but we have had some great experiences, and I grow to love this area more and more each day.

A Few Fun Family Facts About the Anchorage Alaska Mission

Mat's great-uncle, Bruce Dredge from Soda, Springs, Idaho, served a full time mission to Alaska.

Elder Hugh Pinnock was a member of the quorum of the Seventy. Elder Pinnock served as an area authority and his area included the Anchorage Alaska Mission. Hugh Pinnock was a first cousin to Mat's Grandma Borden.